Police "Sting" on the B38
/This in recently from a disgruntled reader: This morning I was waiting for the B38 at the corner of Classon and DeKalb. As usual when it came, it was packed - or at least the front half was. Every time I get on the bus, we are all squeezing into the front because nobody moves back. On the rare occasion, the bus driver asks that people move back, but nobody ever does. I missed the first bus this morning as there was no room to get on and waited 15 minutes for the next one to come. Again, the front was packed, so I joined about 15 people who got on at the back of the bus. I am not trying to avoid paying the fare - I buy my monthly ticket every month for over 6 years now - I am simply trying to get to work on time. About 6 undercover cops got on the bus and asked everyone who walked on through the back door to get off. They held us there for about 20 minutes while they checked our identification and wrote us all tickets for $100 for trying to evade the fare. One man was taken away in handcuffs - I heard him say he was a felon and I believe he had an outstanding warrant or something.
I have mixed feelings about this. I mean, why are the cops spending time on this? Then again, fare evasion costs the MTA millions of dollars every year. Then again, I'm sure some if not most of these riders were MetroCard holders who just needed to get to work.
In the six years I've lived here, the B38 has been consistently effed up when it comes to rush hour. I'm not sure why they can't get the timing right. If it was me who had been stopped by the cops, I'd be pissed. Maybe Tish James can help make this route function better.